practice

l post plus pixIs anyone interested in the day after the trip???

     I am in Re-entry Limbo, which is to say that everything looks incredibly familiar and I know just what to do - even how to drive my car - and yet it feels quite unreal and I keep waiting for some signal that I have to get my bike clothes on, pack some snacks, fill my water bottles and start following the cue sheet on my bicycle. Ricardo the Bike is still somewhere in the universe packed up and either waiting to come back to Boulder or en route or about to arrive and be put together again.
     It's very odd. It's not good or bad - I am perfectly calm and happy. It's just not quite real to me yet. 
     I was met at the airport by my daughter-in-law. She and my son spent a couple of days visiting me via New Orleans when I was in Mississippi. We had a great beachfront dinner in Biloxi and they waved me off on my bicycle the next morning. 
      Yesterday, we left the airport and drove along familiar roads that didn't quite seem real. On the way back, we stopped for dinner at an excellent Mexican restaurant, Zolo's, for a margarita since I'd crossed several state lines in the plane, and for a delicious Cinco de Mayo dinner.

Blog Withdrawal Symptoms

Is anyone interested in the day after the trip???

     I am in Re-entry Limbo, which is to say that everything looks incredibly familiar and I know just what to do - even how to drive my car - and yet it feels quite unreal and I keep waiting for some signal that I have to get my bike clothes on, pack some snacks, fill my water bottles and start following the cue sheet on my bicycle. Ricardo the Bike is still somewhere in the universe packed up and either waiting to come back to Boulder or en route or about to arrive and be put together again.
     It's very odd. It's not good or bad - I am perfectly calm and happy. It's just not quite real to me yet.
     I was met at the airport by my daughter-in-law. She and my son spent a couple of days visiting me via New Orleans when I was in Mississippi. We had a great beachfront dinner in Biloxi and they waved me off on my bicycle the next morning.
      Yesterday, we left the airport and drove along familiar roads that didn't quite seem real. On the way back, we stopped for dinner at an excellent Mexican restaurant, Zolo's, for a margarita since I'd crossed several state lines in the plane, and for a delicious Cinco de Mayo dinner
     When I got back to the apartment house for Seniors where I live, they'd put up a big poster of a woman on a bicycle and added my face to it - which looked great - and a dozen of my friends greeted me and I hugged them. That was a nice welcome to have
     I opened the door to my apartment and nothing had changed. My dog is stilslat my cousin's for a couple of days till I go over to dogsit tomorrow while my cousins go to Indiana for their daughter's graduation from Earlham.
      I unpacked, sorted some things out and went to bed without setting the alarm. Wow. Or packing my bag on the absent bike. Or putting out my biking clothes. Very odd.
      Of course I woke up early because I am now two hours behind Florida, and skipped the whole breakfast thing by going out to eat at a nearby restaurant (no free breakfast in my lobby). Today it didn't rain but it's about 60 and warm and the sun keeps coming out bravely so I went for a long walk along Boulder Creek which is rushing along in its springtime frenzy.
     Not quite here, not quite there, not quite sure where I am. But I am not bicycling. Sigh. It is over.

And today's news is...

A short video which shows the Final Day Arrival in the rain in St. Augustine Florida.

     Here's the link to click on:

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/email.aspx

You can also go to www.womantours.com where they have posted the link and some other photographs.

In case you're wondering, it is still RAINING here and windy and warm, but not a speck of sunshine or beach weather or even pool splashing time, and flooded streets and cancelled outdoor activities. So I found a bookshop and have two books to read and shall stay dry indoors until I get back to Boulder Colorado tomorrow - where it's dry unless it's snowed again!

AND I DID IT!!!

Today is May 3rd, 2013 and it's over!

      It's been a couple of roller coaster days of excitement, happiness and a sense of disbelief that it's over. Today Friday, at the final hotel in St. Augustine, I still had to get up early to get my bike downstairs before 8 a.m. to the Van where 16 bikes were strapped to the top. Ricardo goes on at the front - he's the best - and the rest sit on top Those staying for a day or two in St. Augustine noisily waved to those in the van going straight to the airport with the bicycles which will be packed up in Jacksonville FL and sent home to their various destinations. Then we were all on our own, for the first time in two months.
      I refused to eat another free hotel breakfast. So Katrina, Wendy, Flo and I went to the excellent French restaurant around the corner and had a superb breakfast that tasted like real food and real coffee and sat and exchanged stories and photos while my daughter listened politely. Yes, we have to keep talking to each other - because no-one else will understand.
     Yesterday, our ride into St. Augustine on May 2nd, began as dawn was breaking in light drizzle and gray skies in Palatka. We set off by 7 a.m. for the 40 miles to the fire station. I ended up riding with SuperStar Ann who encouraged me to keep going at a great pace. We all reached the 20 mile Sag stop in good time, and she and I sped off along the beautiful tree-lined road beside the St. Johns River, where lovely old houses stood and tall old trees were hung with gray Spanish moss and the first white creamy blossoms of the magnolia trees were just opening and the lawns were so green and smooth they were almost unreal. It's the rain - which continued to drizzle as we rode along the wet surfaces.
       Ann and I sped along the final 11 miles to the fire station ahead of everyone else. There was only a little traffic and I was surprised when a young woman in a van stopped to ask if we were OK after we'd had a water and pee stop. We assured her we were fine. About five minutes later we came to a big memorial alongside the road. It was a bicycle wrapped up so it looked brand new, and a big sign announcing the death of a young man who'd been killed by a hit and run driver and asking anyone who knew him to send information.  It was a sobering moment - because riding a bicycle alongside the traffic means your life is up for grabs from any idiot drunken careless driver - and they're out on the road. We were both quietly thankful we'd survived.
      As we rode along, the skies suddenly opened and it poured - I mean deluged - down on us. We were so wet by this time that it didn't matter any more. Water, not sweat, was dripping down my face from my helmet. I had taken my raincoat off way back because it was too hot so my clothes were soggy and wet. At least it was warm out so the rain only felt cool. It poured with rain from then on, sometimes lighter, sometimes heavier, but always wet.
      We rode on and came to a traffic light. And there on the right was the fire station. We were the first ones in - 40 miles in an hour and a half - which was great for me. 
     THE PARADE TO THE PARK
     We all had to gather at the fire station and wait for our police escort. Everyone arrived in great excitement and two large police cars pulled up with two cheerful young policemen who'd done this before and thought it was a lot of fun.  We lined up in twos on our bicycles on the road. Then with the police siren blaring, we rode six miles into Downtown St. Augustine, and across the Lions Bridge which is a drawbridge and not as steep as the other one, and along through town over to the Anastasia State Park. Usually there are people on the beach, cars in the parking lot, other people walking and biking around - but since this was a predicted Big Rain Storm, no-one was out but us, and a nice guy from MainCoastNews to film us.
       We rode through the park and our dedicated friends and family- including my wonderful daughter Katrina who had flown in the night before from Portland Oregon (where it was sunny and 75 degrees) - stood waving and cheering and taking photographs of us all streaming in. Then we had to walk across the sands to the ocean - it was low tide of course - and she carried my trusty bike and I put Ricardo's wheels in the sand and a wave washed over his wheels and my shoes and the Atlantic Ocean kissed us both. WE MADE IT!
       Not everyone braved the sand and the ocean but we stood in a line as we had done two months ago on that beach in San Diego, California and cheered. It was still pouring with rain but once you're really wet, it doesn't matter. Then we went into the pavilion where picnic tables were set up and box lunches for us all, which we ate talking and laughing and dripping and eating. It was an amazing celebration of our bicycling success.
      The nice news guy interviewed me, took lots of pictures of everyone, and it was on the local newscast for a total of 35 seconds. I'll try and post the link so you can see us all at the end. Then about four stalwart bikers got on their bicycles to ride to the hotel but the rest of us packed our bikes into available cars and drove to the Best Western Spanish Quarter downtown to dry off.
      It was wonderful!
      FINAL BANQUET
         The Banquet in the evening at Le Pavilion restaurant began with a champagne toast, several impromptu speeches, at least a thousand photographs, and the decibel level in the room was off the meter and exhilarating. The food was superb too - and it was a lovely way to bring our long adventure to a celebratory conclusion. Carol summed up the riding for us all and Linda said how much we had all grown and met our challenges - and it was a moment that I will always remember and keep with me for a long time.
       We walked back in the rain - the weather forecast says rain rain rain for the next few days and about seven inches fell last night and the wind is blowing and streets are flooded. But it didn't seem  to matter at all in the exhilaration and excitement and achievement and delight and friendship we all felt as a group of women who had ridden our bicycles some 3,000 miles across America - and survived to tell the tale.

Day before the Last Day

May 1st 2013 felt a long time away but....

       Today was the last Real Ride from High Springs to Palatka Florida, 73 miles, before we set out tomorrow for St. Augustine. Palatka sounds like some Polish-Mexican dance, rather like La Cucaracha in three-four time. It is another community which looks as if it's mainly for retired people in the central part of Florida.
       I set out with high hopes of doing it all but at 20 miles, I thought I had done enough - and since my biking buddy  Carla was the Sag Driver, I rode by myself a lot and didn't really want to. So I sat in the Sag and encouraged other people and filled up water bottles at the Sag stops and had a  really pleasant and undemanding riding day. We rolled into the Best Western in Palatka around 3 p.m. and it was overcast, and drizzling light rain, but still warm and humid.
       The swimming pool was warm and I swam for about 20 minutes and sat in the excellent hot tub, and then dried off and it was lovely. I collected my baggage and got out a teeshirt and cotton pants, the basic dress for dinner, and my sandals. I now have five teeshirts to choose from, having acquired three new ones along the way which certainly adds variety to my wardrobe.
       Dinner was out in the parking lot - our last picnic amid the white lines - and because of the drizzle, they erected a tarpaulin between the van and the trailer so that the cooks and the food wouldn't get wet.
       We had Happy Hour with drinks from the cooler at 6 p.m. and a superb selection of elegant hors d'oeuvres set out on the long table - different cheeses, small rice crackers, asparagus, bacon wrapped asparagus, and a rolled creamy goats cheese. That was an excellent way to start an evening with a glass of wine.
       The dinner was tenderloin, quinoa and rice, and a big mixed salad which had surprises like beets and artichoke hearts. We sat outside in our usual circle on the white plastic chairs talking and laughing and eating. Gale's husband is here and she brought him round to say hello to us all. And Carla's son Pedro, 22, arrived from Brazil and was also introduced. His English is not very good but he seems very sweet and helped put all the chairs away. A couple of other people were staying with family members or had gone to St. Augustine early to be ready for tomorrow. My daughter Katrina arrives tonight and will go straight to the hotel in St. Augustine where I will be tomorrow.

      FINAL MAP MEETING Carol handed out the Cue Sheets for tomorrow. We have to ride some   40 miles from here to St. Augustine, or 10 miles an hour, which is slow, especially since it's a pretty flat ride. Carla and I agreed to leave around 6:45 to 7 a.m. and we think we can do it. We end up at the Fire Station where for the last six miles we parade through town and have a police escort to our picnic on the beach. That's where we will dip our wheels in the Atlantic Ocean to signify the end of our cross-country ride. Amazing and somehow a bit anti-climactic, it feels to me.
      There were lots of photos being taken. Bell Brinn, who hurt her shoulder in an accident in the first week, came back to greet us all and get advice for doing the ride next year. She's from Colorado and it was good to see her again, and see her looking good again. We were all talking and laughing and enjoying the diner, and it was very hard to think that this was the last time we would get together like this to share our day's riding and joke and chat and take photographs.
      I said to May that it was odd to realize that other women had done this ride in years before and the more women would do the ride in the years ahead, and that we were just one group who had done it and completed it. It is like a shared rite of passage particularly for older women. May's sister, who had ridden with us for a couple of days, sent us some superb chocolates to go with the chilled fruit and mascarpone sauce for dessert, which were delicious.
        Tomorrow, breakfast in the hotel begins at 5:30 a.m., snack table is out at 6:30 a.m. and the Sag list will be ready for checking soon after that - and we'll set off for St. Augustine. The Speedy Lightning Riders will probably arrive way ahead of the us average pedalers - or they may start a bit later....Who know? But we all have to arrive at the Fire Station by 10:30 a.am. it says on the sheet.
       I've set my alarm, put out my riding clothes for tomorrow, packed almost everything, and wonder if I'll just go off to sleep tonight. Or not. Endings are just not as much fun as beginnings, but you can't have one without the other. And who knows what other adventures I can go on next?

april 29th, 2013 0nly two more days!

A lovely flower filled ride in Florida to make my total over 2,000 miles!

Today to my surprise I rode 76 miles from Perry to High Springs Florida along beautiful flower-lined roadways with brilliant scarlet, yellow and white wildflowers in full bloom and dazzling the eye with their colors. This must be the season for wildflowers, before the heat of summer. Every one of the roads I rode on had some purple, pink, scarlet or red flowers blowing in the breeze and petals at the ready for photographs. It was refreshing and inspiring to ride and look at the flowers everywhere.
      I began as always wondering how far I could ride. At 45 miles I was hungry and tired BUT our sag driver pointed out that five miles ahead was a town and restaurants - in short supply on these country roads. So I rode on with Carla and Judy R and we ended up at an excellent McDonalds with iced coffee, a chicken-burger with salad, and air conditioning which is always a good thing since the temperature has moved into the 80s.
      The next 7 miles of the ride was along a lovely bicycle path, with no traffic, but with ups and downs along the way and shade from the many trees along the way. That was a nice change from the traffic, and then we turned on to quiet road to a state park.  When I reached mile 58, in the Ichetucknee Springs State Park - isn't that a wonderful name? - I decided I could do another 20 to get to the hotel in High Springs. So I did, riding along rolling roads between fields with horses and cows and occasional goats, and good roads and very little traffic. Arriving at 3:30 p.m. after an 8 a.m. start was very satisfying and completing the whole 76 miles too! The last part of the road was in the park and then we came out on to US 41, a highway but not too busy, and rode along the 8 miles to the High Springs Country Inn on the left. Yay! Definitely feeling of accomplishment and this has pushed my total mileage to well over 2,000 miles - which is amazing. I always knew I wasn't a candidate for EFI - every fricking inch - or even close to 3,100 miles, but to get to 2,000 is really great for me. And there are two more rides to come with extra miles.
     Today was Wendy's birthday. At the picnic dinner in the parking, which she chose, we had a picnic meal: hot dogs, buns with all the fixin/s, potato salad, and beans.  On a hot evening, it was delicious. AND then there were two cakes - a rich chocolate concoction and a fruit decorated white cake. I went for the chocolate which was superb and rich and all the things birthday cakes are supposed to be. And we had wine, beer, soft drinks and water as we chose to wash it down and talk about the day's riding and joke about who had the biggest icecream sundae. I went and had one at the diner opposite when I came in with an iced coffee - yummy.
      Keith, the English guy who is riding cross country with all his gear tied on his bike, reappeared after we hadn't seen him for weeks. We met him at the beginning and then again, a couple of times, and now he hopes to get to St. Augustine at the same time we do, spend a week recovering and then fly back to England. He seems to fit in well with our motley group and he's just one of the gals now.
     Tomorrow we have breakfast at 7:15 and will set out early for Palatka, FL our last stop before St. Augustine.

A Monday morning in Florida

Riding 54 miles on a flat straight highway

     Today we bicycled 54 miles east, towards St. Augustine. I left the Inn at 8 a.m. with Carla and we biked steadily along, covering the miles along Highway 98 which runs through the middle of Florida's swampland, where somewhere out there are alligators and turtles and fish and other swamp animals.
     We saw one turtle resting along the highway, undecided about which way to go and a later visitor moved him on to the grassy bank off the bike path. We saw a large dead animal on the road, which a ranger with flashing lights on his truck realized was too big for him to lift on the truck so I'm not sure what happened to it. And we saw birds flitting around, and lots of swampy water, trees and bushes.
The highway was designed by someone who likes straight lines, and that's what I rode today with a couple of low bridges along the way over the Wakulla River and the Aucilla River. One part of the road was being fixed and they had left us a rattling metal bridge to ride over which was quite scary. But the rest of the time it was just pedalingpedaliingpedaling to rack up the miles so that we could get to the Sag Stops at 20 miles, and the town of Perry at 54 miles.
     Everyone did it today at their own speed, which was good. The Hampton Inn is excellent and has a pool with warm water in it because it's so much warmer here. Carla found a small scorpion like insect/animal in the water trying to bite here so he had to be dealt with using screams and shoes. And then I sat and read and basked in the sun.. 
      Today was an orgy of superb Italian food at Mamma Mia's, an Italian restaurant that could have been transplanted from Fort Lee, New Jersey, where I used to go to an identical Italian restaurant where the music was Frank Sinatra ("Do it my way") and "La Donna e Mobile" sung by an Italian tenor with great emotion. At lunchtime I had a shrimp salad and almost focaccia bread.  For dinner I had grouper piccata, with the wine and lemon sauce over fresh fish, which was delicious. And wine in glasses - not plastic ones which we always have on our picnics. We filled the place up and the maître d' greeted us rapturously and was most impressed with our trip. There is something about old-fashioned Italian restaurants rooted in the 1960s that is really amazing with booths and small tables and good food and Frank Sinatra, the impeccable.
      The Hampton Inn also provided Happy Hour at 5 p.m. with large wine glasses of white or red wine, chocolate melted to cover strawberries, and cookies to keep us going at 5:30 p.m. That was distinctly a great way to start the evening. Then we walked the five minutes to the Italian restaurant. More wine, and great food, and lots of interesting conversations made it a lovely evening
     Tomorrow we have 74 miles, a longer day, and start at 7:30 a.m. I hope the rain that came down this evening means the storms will blow over for tomorrow - no fun riding in a thunderstorm at all.
So another perfect day - breakfast, ride a bike, arrive a hotel, swim, drink, eat and bed. Sounds great to me..